Gravity unloading railway car



Jan. 9, 1940. A. A. JOHNSON GRAVITY UNLOADING RAILWAY CAR 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 26, 1938 N RM g Q MW o m M. Q \S J Q a v y %M x Q Q B N m w H Q a A mm \N Q Q Q u A 1940- A. A. JOHNSON GRAVITY UNLOADING RAILWAY CAR Filed May 26, 1938 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

Jan. 9, 1940. A. A. JOHNS ON GRAVITY UNLOADING RAILWAY CAR Filed May 26, 1938 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 AM BERT A L/OH/VSO/V.

INVENTOR ATTORNEYS.

I \N M NE WITNESS.

Patented Jan. 9, 1940 1 Unit a1. STATES FPATENTFOFFICE 7 2,186,701 GRAVITY 'UNLOADING RAILWAY CAR- Alhert A. Johnson, Kew Gardens, -N. Y. Application May 26,1938, SerialNo. 210,220

8 Claims.

* .This. invention relates to improvements in rail-.

way cars and more particularly to a gravity unloading railway car for the shipment of citrus fruits and like loose articles in bulk'form.

'Ihe main'object of the invention resides in a railway car inwhich loose articles maybe shipped in bulk form and the contents of thecar unloaded without the usual labor expensewhich is involved in manually unloading a railway car, and which reduces the cost of marketing many principal raw foods.

Another feature of the invention is to provide a railway car for the shipment of loose articles in bulk form which relies upon the uninterrupted gravitational flow of the articles from the car during an unloading operation, and which unloadingfmay be effected simultaneously through opposite sides of the car and thereby greatly expedite the unloading operation.

A further feature of-the invention is the pro vision of a railway car having a novel form of chuteinto and through which articles suchas oranges, grapefruit, lemons, potatoes, onions, cabbages, cucumbers, and the like, may gravitationally pass without causing injury thereto.

A" still further feature of the invention is the provision of a gravity unloading railway car having discharge outlets in opposite sides and mid- Way of the length thereof, and hinged flooring sections extending from the outlets to the ends of the car, which sections may be selectively "raised to inclined positions to cause the load supportedupon the .fioor sections to gravitate toward the discharge outlets, each floor section being provided with a novel construction of hinged floor extension held in adjustablebearing engagement with the adjacent end wall of the car to close the gap between the floor sec-. tion and the. end wallof the car caused by the arc of travel of the floor section when raised to;

prevent loose articles supported by the floor section from dropping over the outer end thereof.

A still further feature of the invention is to provide 'an inclined chute for railway cars in 1' which the gravitational flow of articles down the chute may be started and stopped and controlled as to speed of flow.

A still further object of the invention is the" provision of a self unloading railway car in which the above features are embodied without affecting the standard construction prescribed for the building of railway car chassis.

With these and other objects in view. the in vention resides'in the certain novel construction, combination and arrangement of parts, the

essential features of which are hereinafter fully described in the following specification, are particularly pointed out in the appended claims, and are illustrated in the'accompanying drawings, in

which, 6,

Figure 1 is a side elevational viewiof my improved self unloading railway car with part broken away in section, the floor section being illustrated in raised position in dotted lines.

Figure 2 is an enlarged detail vertical sectional view on the. line 2-2 of Figure 1, the leftside 1 closures being in closed position.

Figure Sis an enlarged detail vertical sectional View on the line 6- -6 of Figure 5 with the gate closures in open position.

Figure 7 isan enlarged detailsectional view on the line 'l-lof Figure 4.

Figure 8 is a detail vertical sectional view on the line 8 8 of Figure .5. i Figure 9.is a'fragmentary sectional perspective view of the outer end of one of the hinged floor sections, the same being shown in lowered position.

Figure" 10 is a fragmentary side elevational view of a modified form of discharge chute. Figure 11 is a detail vertical transverse section'al view on the lineql II I of Figure 10.

- Figure 12 is. an" enlarged vertical sectional view similar to Figure 11 but showing the chute extension in open position for use.

. Figure 13 is a detailvertical sectional view through the prop spring hinge connection.

Figure 14 is an enlarged detail vertical sectional view on the line I4 l4 of Figure 12.

Figure 15 is a detail vertical sectional view of amodified form of cable rest for the auxiliary floor extension member.

Referring to the'drawings by reference characters, the numeral 10 designates my self unloading railway car in its entirety which includes 59 an insulated refrigerator box car body I I mounted on a-wheel chassis l2, the latter having the usual central longitudinal beam I3 extending the. length thereof and to the ends of which the car couplings l 4;are connected. The car body II is 5 5 provided adjacent each end thereof with a vertical partition I5 to provide an ice compartment If, the same having communication with the interior of the car body through any form of air circulating passages. Opposite sides of the car body are provided with centrally located door openings ll normally closed by double hinged doors l8l8. Removable horizontallydisposed boards !9 also close the door openings l! to permit opening of the doors l8 when the car is loaded, without fear of the articles piled therein flowing through the door openings, but the boards may be individually removed as the level of the car contents lowers adjacent the door openings during an unloading operation, to eventually permit access to the interior of the car body. The construction so far described is present in standard refrigerator railway cars but I shall now proceed with a detailed description of the novel features which in combination with the above construction, constitutes my invention.

The car body II is provided centrally thereof with two identical discharge chutes 28-20, the same being respectively disposed at opposite sides of the center beam i3 and which open through rectangular box-like housings 2i which depend from opposite sides of the car body. A sill 22 is mounted longitudinally upon the beam !3 and extends the length of the open top of the discharge chutes 2E]. The top of the sill 2?. terminates on a plane substantially even with the car floor presently to be explained. The top of the sill is beveled as at 23 in the direction of the chutes 20-25. In view of the fact that both chutes 20 are of identical construction, a description of one'will sufiice for the other.

The chute 20 includes an inclined metal bottom wall 24 which extends from the sill 22 to the open side of the housing 2i, and downwardly and inwardly converging side walls 2525 which all coact to guide articles passing thereover to a restricted rectangular shaped discharge outlet 26. The inner ends of the converging side walls 25 connect with vertical partition walls 2'! which extend transversely of the housing 2! and divides the same into separate compartments 28 and 29. J ournaled in the end walls of the chute adjacent the top of the-discharge outlet 26 is a shaft 30 to which is fixed a plurality of spaced arms 3|, the said arms coacting to provide an upper gate closure A. An actuating lever 32 is fixed to the end of the shaft 30 which extends into the compartment 29 and may be locked in various positions by releasable latch mechanism 33. Coacting with the upper gate closure A is a lower gate closure B which includes a shaft 34 extending across the chute bottom wall 24 below the plane thereof and. journaled in the partition walls 21 with one end of'the shaft extending into the compartment 29 and having an actuating handle 35 fixed thereto, the said handle being held in adjusted position by releasable latch mechanism 36. Fixed to the shaft 34 at spaced distances therealong are arms 3'! which are offset with respect to the path of the arms 3! of the upper gate closure A but which coact with the latter to provide a double closure for the discharge outlet 26. When the lower gate closure B is in open position, the arms 31 thereof seat in grooves 38 provided in the metalbottom wall 2 1 of the chute. When the gate closures A and B are in closed position as shown in Figure 2 of the drawings, the arms 3! and 31 are parallel and provide a grill-like wall for restricting the flow of articles from the upper hopper portion of the chute 20.

Hinged at 35 at the bottom of the chute 20 is a chute extension member 40, the same being of U-shape in cross section, which when in lowered position extends beyond the plane of the side of the car body to form an extension for the discharge chute. When not in use, the extension member 48 may be raised to a vertical position to lie within the housing 2| to enable the hinged housing door 4| to be swung to a closed position. When closed, the door 4! is held by any suitable releasable fastening means, such as lock bolts 42. Foldable link braces 43 act to support the weight of the chute extension member 49 when the same is in lowered position for use.

A slat floor section or door 44 is slidably mounted in grooves 45 in the side wall of the car body and the adjacent side of the sill 22 for closing the entrance to the chute 20. The door M for closing one chute 2D is movable to an open position by sliding the same longitudinally toward one end of the car body while the door 64 for the other chute is slidable to an open position in a reverse direction. Each sliding door 4 may be actuated from the adjacent exterior side of the car body by mechanism now to be described.

Each door actuating mechanism includes a pair of spaced longitudinal rack bars 45' on the underside thereof which respectively mesh with a pair of pinion gears 46 fixed to a transversely disposed shaft i! suitably journaled and disposed below the plane of the inner side of the bottom wall of the car body. The outer end of the shaft is square and countersunk in a recess 48 in the side wall of the car body to which a crank handle 29 may be fitted for imparting turning movement to the shaft and sliding movement to the door 44 through the meshing'rack and pinions 45-46. The doors 44 are closed when the car is loaded to relieve the gate closures A and B of the pressure of the contents of the car. Fixed stops 50 are provided on the bottom wall of the car body in the path of sliding movement of the sliding door 44 for limiting the sliding movement of the door to fully opened and closed positions.

Hingedly mounted Within the car body as at 5i adjacent the entrance to the opposed chutes 20, are tiltable floor sections 52-52. The floor sections 52-52 and their associated hoisting mechanism are identical in construction, and a description of one will sufiice for the other.

These floor sections 52 take the place of stationary sectional floor racks now used on top of refrigerator car floors.

Each floor section 52 includes a plurality of spaced transverse cleats 53 having depending vfeet 5-! which rest upon the bottom wall of the car body I i when the floor section is in fully lowered position. Spaced longitudinal slats 55 are secured to the top side of the cleats 53 and provide a flooring which is open and spaced from the bottom of the car body for ventilating and cooling purposes.

Hinged at 56 to the outer end of the floor section 52 is a flagelated floor extension plate 51 which extends upwardly and outwardly to rest against the end partition or wall l5 to close the gap or space between the outer end of the floor section and the wall l5 when the floor section is raised to its unloading inclined position. The top edge of the extension plate 51 is notched 'ing of the cable to a winding drum 13.

at 58 to receive anti-friction rollers 59 which ride directly against the innerside of the wall l5. Triangular shaped end flanges 66 having anti-friction ball bearings 60 mounted therein are provided at the opposite ends of the plate 5'! and freely abut the side walls of the car body to close the gap at the corners between the car body and the floor section. The floor section 52 and the extension plate coact to provide a single foldable floor unit completely overlying extends upward from the eye bolt 62 and passes through and bears against a fork member 63 extending outwardly from a plate 64 bolted to the inner side of the extension plate 51 adjacent the bottom thereof. The extension plate is provided with a series of spaced bolt openings 65 whereby the plate may be adjustably bolted in'position. After passing through the fork 63,

the cable snugly passes through an elongated guide eye 66 s'ecuredto the inner side of the plate 51 adjacent the top thereof. The guide eye 66 acts to hold the floor section against side rocking although one side of the floor section may be weighted more than the other. In other words, the eye tends to prevent side tilting of the floor section at all times. A pulley 6'! is provided at the top .of the partition wall I5 over which the cable 6| passes, the said cable passing down through the refrigerator compartment l6 and being enclosed in. tubing 58. Mounted at the bottom of the carb-ody centrally thereof is a pulley 69, the axis of the pulley being at right angle to that of the upper'pulley 61 whereby the cable after passing over the pulley 69 may be led transversely to pass over 'a horizontal pulley 10 located adjacent one side of' the car body. The cable 6 I after passing over the pulley 10 extends toward the center of the car body and is enclosed in tubing H which guides the cable into the compartment 28 of the housing 2| where a pulley 12 is mounted for the guid- The winding drum 13 is fixed to a transversely disposed shaft 14 .journaled in bearings 15, and

fixed to the shaft M is a gear. A winding shaft.

1'! extends transversely of the car body to opposite sides thereof, the opposite ends of the shaft being square and countersunk in the sides of the car body, whereby a winding crank may be applied to either end of the shaft and manual rotation imparted thereto. Fixed to thewinding shaft 17 and extending into the compartment 23 is a pinion gear 18 which-has constant meshing engagement with one end gear of a gear train 19, the other end of the gear train having a gear which constantly meshes with the gear 16, thus rotation is imparted from the winding shaft 1'! tothe drum shaft 14 by. means of the pinion gear I8, gear train 79, and gear 16. The gear train 19 acts to reduce the amount of manual crank effort necessary to hoist the floor section 5 under 'a load of articles supported thereby. It will thus be seenthatthe Winding station for raising the outer, end of the floor unit is remote therefrom and by winding the cable 6| upon the drum 13, a pull will be exerted upon the cable and the floor unit will swing upward as illus-' trated in dotted lines in Figure 1 of the drawings. By reason of the cable forcibly bearing against the fork member 63, the extension plate 51 of the floor unit will be forcibly held against the end wall l5, the pressure decreasing as the floor section moves upward and the gap between the outer end of the floor section and end wall l5 becomes greater.- Thus the extension plate 5'! cooperates with floor section 52 to provide a tiltable floor extending'from the chutes 20 to an end wall of the car body.

If desired, a removable partition may be set up within the car body inwardly of the hinged end of the floor section 52 to partition off the interior. Also, if desired, slidable vertical partitions may be supported by the hinged floor section 52 in the manner set forth in my co-pending application Serial No. 153,723.

Assume that a railway car-HI as herein constructed is loaded with oranges or other loose articles in bulk as illustrated in Figure 1 of the drawings. To eiiect an unloading of the car contentsat the point of destination of the car, conveyors are provided beneath the discharge outlets 26 at opposite sides of the car. The doors 4! are unlocked and dropped to open position and a crank applied to the shafts 4'! toimpart rotation to the shafts for sliding the doors 44 to open position, whereupon any articles loaded in the compartment between the partitions 80 will drop into the wide inlet ends of the chutes 2!).v The chute extensions 40 are swung down to the position shown in Figure 2 and the gate closures A and B may be manually swung to open position to allow the articles to gravitate down the chute 20 and be discharged from the chute extensions 40 onto the conveyors. The flow of the articles down the chute may be controlled by the actuation of the gate closure A to adjusted position,

andthe flow stopped atany time by moving both gate closures to closed position. The doors l8 may be opened at the beginning of the unloading operation and the planks l9 removed as the unloading progresses to allow entrance intothe car, whereupon the partitions may be successively lifted or removed and the hinged floor sections 52 successively raised to inclined positions by the actuation of the hoisting mechanism to cause the loose articles supported thereby to gravitate toward the center of the car bodyand be discharged through the chutes 25. After the articles supported by each floor section have been unloaded, the floor section is lowered to its normal horizontal position, and when the car has been entirely unloaded of its contents, the chute extensions 40, doors44, I8 and M are closed and the car moved away from the unloading station. By this method of shipping loose articles in bulk and unloading the same by gravity, the labor cost for unloading is eliminated for two attendants may take care of an entire unloading operation. Also, the cost of railway car demurrage is reduced, for the contents may be quickly unloaded and the empty car rolled away from an unloading station to make room for the rolling in and emptying of the next loaded car. All of these savings in time,-labor, and cost of packaging reduces the cost of marketing many of the prin cipal food commodities.

Throughout the entire structural design of the railway car I U, I have eliminated any. sudden drop of the articles as they gravitate to the discharge end of the chutes, which avoids any damage caused by injury to articles of fruit which are subject to bruise.

In Figures 10 to 14 inclusive, there is shown a modified form of chute in which the chute bottom is adjustable to various inclinations to regulate the control of the gravitational flower articles from the car body. In this modified form, like parts hereinbefore described areidentified by the same reference characters.

In the modified form, I provide a metal chute bottom Hill which is hinged adjacent the sill 22 as at llll and which extends outwardly adjacent the open front of the box-lilac housing 2!. The outer edge of the chute bottom lilo is provided with spaced bearing knuckles E32 which turnably support a shaft 93 to which a chute extension member ill-'1 is pivotally connected. One end of the shaft M3 extends into the compartment 29 i and has a manipuiating handle [D fixed thereto.

The chute extension member lll tis swung to a vertical position when not in use as shown in Figure 11 of the drawings and when in use, the same is dropped to the position shown in Figure 12 where it forms a projecting continuation of the chute bottom W8. Lock bars lllfi are pivoted to the outer side of the chute extension member I84 and have their free ends outwardly offset as at l8? for seating in keeper members 18 fixed to the underside of the outer end of the chute bottom Hill. The lock barslfifi are ofiset to clear the hinged joint between the extension member I04 and the chute bottom me.

For bracing and adjustably supporting the lower outer end of the chute bottom Hi9, there is provided a pair of prop arms Hill which are fixedly connected to the shaft i433 so as to turn therewith. The lower ends of the prop arms engage ratchet bars HG fixed to the bottom wall of the housing 21 and which extend transversely thereof. By actuating the handle I85, the prop arms [63 may be swung to various adjusted positions .in engagement with the teeth of the rack bars Hi), which cause the chute bottom lfili to be A moved to and supported at various angles of inclination. Springs ill carried by the shaft I93 act to constantly urge the prop arms it!) into engagement with the rack bars MB. In use, the chute extension member we is first swung down and locked by the lock bars 06 and keepers I98,v

after which the chute bottom lllil may be adjustably supported at the desired angle of inclination.

In Figure 15 of the drawings I have illustrated a modified form of cable seat which may be used in lieu of the plate land fork member 53 heretoiore described. In this modified construction a plate i ii is welded or otherwise secured to the lower portion or" the floor extension plate member 5? centrally thereof. The plate H2 has spaced outwardly extending cars l l3 provided with a series of spaced alined bolt openings l M. A bolt H5 extends through any pair of alined openings depending upon the amount of pressure to be irnparted against the extension plate member 5?. A saddle member H6 is mounted on the bolt H5 between the ears H3 and has an eye Ii? through which the bolt passes. The lower end of the cable El seats against the saddle H5 and imparts an outer pressure upon the extension member 57 to hold the same in an upwardly inclined position against the adjacent end wall of the car body to prevent articles from dropping beneath the slat fioOring of the car body.

In the construction and design of my gravity unloading railway car I have borne in mind the essential factors which are necessary for a commercial carrier of fruits, vegetables, and other easily injured loose articles, namely,

(1) Avoids as far as possible the dropping of fruits and vegetables onto horizontal surfaces.

(2) Space must be conserved between the outside bottoms of the chutes and railroads rails.

(3) Chutes must have sufficient inclination to permit a, gravitational flow of products.

l) The center beam which is standard in car construction must not be disturbed.

(5) The car body must be so constructed. as to permit cold air to flow beneath the floor from the ends toward the center.

Whereas I have illustrated and described my invention as applied to railway cars, the same may be .i'nbodied in trucks, trailers, and other like hauling vehicles.

ll 'hile I have shown and described what I conto be the preferred embodiments of my ion, I wish it to be understood that such changes in. construction and design as came within the scope of the appended claims. may be resorted to if desired without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 0': the United States, is:

In a railway car, a car body, an outwardly and downwardly inclined chute extending transversely of said cc' body having its inlet end opening through the bottom of said car body and its discharge end opening at a side of said car body, opposed upper and lower coacting hinged gate closures mounted adjacent the outlet end of said chute, each of said gate closures including a plurality of spaced parallel arias, the arms of one gate closure being staggered with respect to the arms of the other gate closure to enable the same to freely pass during pivotal movement to open and closed positions, recesses provided in the bottom wall of said chute to receive and countersink the arms of the lower gate closure when in fully open position, individual actuating means for said gate closures, and. individual releasable latch mechanism for holding the individual actuatingrneans in various positions of adjustment.

2. In a railway car, a car body, an outwardly and downwardly inclined unloading chute ex tending transversely of said car body having its upper inlet end opening through the bottom of said car body and its lower end opening at a side of said car body, said chute including a bottom wall hinged at its top, and irns connected to the lower end of said bottom wall for supporting the same at different angles of inclination.

3. In a railway car, a car body, an outwardly and downwardly inclined unloading chute extending transversely of said car body having its upper inlet end opening through the bottom of said car body and its lower end opening at a side of said car body, said chute including a bottom wall hinged at its top, props hinged to the lower end of said bottom wall, and fixe. rack bars with which the free ends of said props engage for supporting said bottom wall in various positions of adjustment.

4. In a railway car, a car body, an outwardly and downwardly inclined unloading chute extending transversely of said car body having its upper inlet end opening through the bottom of said car body and its lower end opening at a side of said car body, said chute including a bottom wall hinged at its top, and means connected to the same at different angles of inclination, achute extension member hinged to the lower end of said bottom wall for movement to a vertical position when not in use to close the lower end of said chute, and interengaging latch means carried, by said chute extension member and said bottom wall for supporting said chute extension member in coextensive relation to the lower end of said bottom wall to project beyond the plane of the side of said car body when the chute is intended for use. I

5. In a self unloading railwaycar, a box car body having chute means centrally thereof, a pair of floor sections respectively extending from opposite sidesof said chute means to the opposite ends of said car body, each of said floor sections being hinged at its inner end adjacent said chute means, a floor extension plate hinged to the outer end .of said floor section and extending upward and resting against the end wall of said car body, a hoisting cable having oneend attached to the outer end of each floor section and rising up- Ward and over a pulley-at the top of the adjacent end wall, a bearing member projecting from said extension plate against which said cable forcibly seats to urge said extension plate against the adjacent end wall during a floor hoisting and lowering operation, and winding means carried by said car body to which the other end of said cable is connected.

6. In a self unloading railway car, a box car ,body having a discharge chute, a floor section having its inner end hinged adjacent said chute and extending to an end wall of said car body, afloor extension plate hinged to the outer end of said floor section and extending upwardly and outwardly, anti-friction rollers mounted in the top edgeof said extension plateyand bearing against the adjacent end wall of said car body. a hoistingfand" lowering cable having one end attached to the outer end of said floor section and rising upward and passing over a pulley at the top of the adjacent and wall of said car body, a fork member extending from the lower portion of said extension plate and in which said cable is seated, whereby an upward pull upon said cable'causes the extension plate to forcibly engage the adjacent end wall to close the gap between the floor section and the end wall when .said floor'section is raised to an, inclined posia floor extension member hinged to the free,

outer end of said floor section and extending upwardly and'outwardly at an angle and resting against the adjacent end wall, end walls provided at the sides of said extension'member for Snug engagement with, the side walls of saidv body, a cable having one of its ends fixed to the outer end of said floor section and extending upwardly therefrom, a bearing member extending inwardly from said extension member against which said cable forcibly presses,.a guide element carried by said extension plate and disposed directly above said bearing member and through which said cable snugly passes, and winding means to which the other end of said cable is connected to facilitate the raising and lowering of said floor section.

8. In. a railway car having a box body, a floor section hinged atone end and normally resting upon the bottom ofsaid body, the free end of said floor section extending to one end wall of said body, a flagelated floor extension member carried bythe free end of said floor section and, extending upwardly against the adjacent end wall, and hoisting and lowering means connected to Y said-floor section and acting to forcibly holdsaid 

